PGA Tour chief says senators didn’t help fend off LIV Golf challenge

PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan defended his organization’s decision to join forces with Saudi-backed rival LIV Golf in a letter to skeptical senators, writing that members of Congress could have done more to fend off the challenge from the upstart golf league. 

In a letter dated June 9 and obtained by The Hill, Monahan said the PGA Tour spent tens of millions of dollars fighting LIV and risked spending years more in litigation that would have posed an existential threat.

Monahan, who has been the PGA Tour’s commissioner since 2017, said the legal battle against the deep-pocketed Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) would have diverted significant funds away from their core mission of supporting players and charities.

“As part of the litigation, we were successful in securing a court ruling that the PIF was not protected under sovereign immunity with respect to litigation discovery and potentially liability, something which had never been done before in the United States,” Monahan wrote in his letter, noting that the tour met with several members of Congress and policy experts to discuss the matter.

“While we are grateful for the written declarations of support we received from certain members, we were largely left on our own to fend off the attacks, ostensibly due to the United States’ complex geopolitical alliance with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” Monahan added. “This left the very real prospect of another decade of expensive and distracting litigation and the PGA TOUR’s long-term existence under threat.”

Monahan also claimed that the arrangement “is not a merger between the PGA TOUR, LIV Golf, and the PIF,” adding that the PIF has agreed to work as a minority investor, with the tour having full control. However, critics of the deal worry Saudi investors will effectively take control of the PGA Tour over time.

“The difficult negotiations we have undertaken with the Saudis and the agreement in principle we have reached will accomplish important goals that protect the game and the important work of the PGA TOUR in the United States,” Monahan wrote. “The PGA TOUR is, and will remain, an American institution dedicated to its players and generating charity in the communities where we play.” 

Earlier this week, the Senate Homeland Security Committee’s investigations subcommittee requested details on the PGA-LIV merger, giving Monahan until June 26 to turn over documents and information including “communications concerning risks to PGA Tour posed by LIV Golf, ownership of LIV Golf, and Saudi Arabia’s influence on LIV Golf.”

Monahan’s letter predates the request.

“​​While few details about the agreement are known, [PIF’s] role as an arm of the Saudi government and PGA Tour’s sudden and drastic reversal of position concerning LIV Golf raise serious questions regarding the reasons for and terms behind the announced agreement,” panel chairman Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) wrote in a letter to Monahan on Monday. 

The merger, announced last week, will combine both golfing tours’ commercial businesses — along with DP World Tour, also known as the European PGA Tour — into one for-profit, yet-to-be-named entity.

The agreement also ended a yearlong antitrust litigation between the two golfing leagues. The PGA Tour previously suspended a list of prominent golfers including Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, and Bryson DeChambeau for their decision to jump ship and join LIV.